1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a photographic paper reserver mechanism disposed between a printing unit and a development unit in a photographic paper reserver and adapted for guiding photographic paper.
2. Related Art
A type of photography printing and developing apparatus is known in which a printing unit for printing photographic paper with an image of a film and a development unit for developing the photographic paper that has been printed with the image are connected to each other.
This type of photography printing and developing device is provided with a photographic paper reserver for absorbing the difference between the processing speeds of these units, that is, the difference between the speed at which photographic paper is transported through one of these units and the speed at which the paper is transported through the other unit. This photographic paper reserver is provided with a first guide roller positioned at the side of the printing unit and a second guide roller positioned at the side of the development unit. An intermediate portion of the photographic paper is curved and suspended between these rollers. The difference between the photographic-paper transportation speeds of the printing and development units is thereby absorbed, enabling the photographic paper to be supplied smoothly.
However, it would be possible that an intermediate portion of the photographic paper supplied from the first guide roller is not smoothly curved and suspended in a desired direction so that it is folded doubly or triply when it is pinched by or wound around the second guide roller.
To cope with this problem, a type of reserver has been proposed which has an auxiliary roller which is disposed in the vicinity of the second guide roller and which rotates in the opposite direction relative to the second guide roller. In this photographic-paper reserver provided with the auxiliary roller, there is such a merit that, even though an intermediate portion of the photographic paper is not smoothly curved and suspended in the desired manner, it is prevented from being folded doubly or triply.
However, the photographic-paper reserver of the construction using the auxiliary roller necessitates an additional driving device for driving the auxiliary roller, thereby making the reserver structure totally complicated. Moreover, there would be a possibility of damage of the photographic paper due to the rotation of the auxiliary roller in the opposite direction.